These smokers move outside

After smoking ban, restaurant remains friends' gathering place.

After smoking ban, restaurant remains friends' gathering place.

April 20, 2006|JOSHUA STOWE Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- These friends love an easygoing evening at Honkers, where they can socialize as they sip coffee and savor their smokes. The relaxing routine is what draws them to this south-side restaurant. It's a pleasant way to unwind at day's end. And it's still going, despite the countywide smoking ban. Now, though, there's a twist: The group gathers outside the restaurant, in the parking lot, where they're still allowed to smoke. They carve out a small space with orange cones, set up a card table, and seat themselves in lawn chairs. And then they light up. Once in a while one of them walks into Honkers, fills a thermos with the coffee they all swear by, and brings it out. They don't eat the restaurant's food anymore, they say, and they don't plan to. But they still come. "We're hoping that one day they'll come out that door and say, 'Hey, come in and smoke,' " says Mary Ransbottom, who comes with her husband, Don. The Ransbottoms, who are in their early 60s, are the oldest of three couples that form the core of the group, an intergenerational bunch that shares a yen for lighting up. The other regulars include Al and Sharon Howe, who are in their late 40s, and Robbie McCormick and Carol Leydet, who are in their 20s. Leydet, who's pregnant with her first child -- a girl -- is the only one who doesn't currently smoke. The Ransbottoms have been regular Honkers patrons for about 15 years, Mary Ransbottom says, adding that the Howes have been dining there for about a dozen years. The couples met in the smoking section. They met Leydet within the last year, when she'd worked as a Honkers waitress. These days, others sometimes join the group for a quick nicotine fix, and they say passing drivers have honked their horns, given them thumbs up, and hoisted packs of cigarettes to show their sympathies. They remember one giving them a thumbs down. But it's not about the attention, the friends say. "We're not out here to prove a point," Al Howe says. "This is just our home base." The gatherings are just fine with Honkers owner Jeff Nickerson, who says, "I still treat them as customers." And they're legal, says Rita Hooton, of the St. Joseph County Health Department. The group still wishes they could smoke inside their favorite restaurant. They don't plan to stop just because of the ban; Sharon Howe says she smokes despite her emphysema. Smoking ban update Source: St. Joseph County Health Department "What we want people to know is that politicians really don't have the right to interfere with people's rights as far as smoking," Don Ransbottom says, and McCormick adds, "They got bigger fish to fry." But new regulations aside, no one's stopped the group from puffing away in the parking lot. No one's stopped them from displaying a sign reading "Reserved for Smokers Only!" And no one's stopped them from setting their stuffed-animal mascot, Fido the Smoking Dog, atop their table. "We haven't planned on what to do when it rains or snows," Al Howe says. "We'll figure it out."